The company is investing in the development of a resilient dual-path network across the Atlantic between North America and Europe. Its America Europe Connect-2 (AEC-2) cable forms part of its ownership share in HAVFRUE, a new transatlantic cable that will land at New Jersey Fiber Exchange (NJFX) and will connect New Jersey with Ireland, Denmark and Norway.
Aqua Comms will market its portion of the development as CeltixConnect-2 (CC-2) for the new Irish Sea cable between Dublin and Blackpool, and North Sea Connect (NSC) for the North Sea cable between Newcastle and Denmark.
“These are very exciting times for Aqua Comms. We are delighted to follow up on our previously announced development plans and are pleased that this real progress is now being made towards the launch of the North Atlantic Loop in late 2019,” said Nigel Bayliff, CEO of Aqua Comms.
The new investment will create diverse, high capacity routes between Europe, the UK, Ireland and the US. In addition, leased and ownership services will be available from all landing stations as well as carrier neutral, metro area points of presence (PoPs) in Dublin, Manchester, Newcastle and Copenhagen.
Survey vessels have already begun to mobilise for CC-2 and NSC, and within the next few weeks, detailed manufacturing plans will be confirmed with an unnamed contractor. The cables are due to go live in late 2019.
In September, NJFX, a US-based carrier neutral cable landing station, announced that the HAVFRUE transatlantic subsea cable will land at its colocation campus in Wall, New Jersey. The cable will span the North Atlantic connecting New Jersey and Denmark, with a branch connection to Ireland and Norway, the first of its kind for almost 20 years. The system is being build by a consortium of owner/operators, which includes Aqua Comms, Bulk Infrastructure, Google and Facebook.
